From console to console

I borrowed Fallout 3 from a friend of mine, now that I have a PC that can actually play games, a whole new world of video games is opening up to me.

I've beaten Fallout 3 on my XBox 360 and thoroughly enjoyed the game, now I can enjoy playing Fallout 3 in the portability of a laptop. (I don't know if a 19 inch screen is that portable, but hey, it fits in my backpack and I play it at school in study halls.) In addition, I now have all the extra fun mods have to offer along with a wonderful thing called the console command that basically lets you do anything.

Though I still have to mess around with the vast amount of mods I can play with, I want to see what Fallout 3 is like without mods, etc. simply played on the PC. Anyone who knows video games knows that controls hugely impact how one enjoys playing a game. So far I would have to say that the controls while playing Fallout 3 on PC vs 360 has it's ups and downs. For example, to pull up your Pipboy, which serves as your status menu to equip and unequip armor and weapons, along with managing ammo and medecine, you press B on XBox and Tab on PC. While the B button is easily located on your controller, I often find myself pressing Caps Lock or Q which toggles the always walk or auto run control. This can lead to such misfortunes such as walking into a landmine, losing focus as you try to figure out why the pipboy won't pull up while you take heavy damage, and of course simple annoyance.

The same problem goes with sneaking, to toggle sneak mode you simply press the right analog stick down on 360, where as you press Ctrl on PC. While the repercussion of missing this button press is vastly lowered, it's still annoying when you have to look down to see where you're finger is.

Though these are minor problems that are easily fixed after playing for a while. (I've almost gotten used to it all, my finger still occasionally misses the Tab button) Despite this, the PC still wins in one area of controls that console won't be passing in for a long time. Aiming, first person games seem like they are made for the mouse and keyboard. Sniping, shooting and just moving around is alot more fluid than it is on two analog sticks.



After some thought and consideration, you can't say which control scheme is better, PC or console. It's all preference, but when you want to get more bang for your buck, the winner is clearly PC. With so many mods out there, the time you can spend playing a game can be endless. Downloadable content can only last you so long, but the wonderful community of modders are always at it leaving you with an almost endless myriad of extra content. And it's free too!